Being a Student or at Home: Does Topic Influence How Bilinguals Process Words in Each Language?

Research has assessed how language use differences between bilinguals (e.g., whether two languages are used approximately equally often or not) influence processing. However, first (L1) and second (L2) might also differ within bilinguals, depending on the topic of conversation. For example, a Mandarin–English bilingual studying in North America UK talk about exams English but their childhood Mandarin. In this study, we therefore examined topics associated with either L1 L2 can Twenty-nine students America/the completed lexical decision task single-language contexts (all words/pseudowords one language) dual-language (alternating Mandarin English). Half words referred to L1-associated (childhood family life) half were L2-associated (studying life at university). Topic influenced processing, being processed faster than single- contexts. contrast, did not This suggests that processing only be by bilinguals. less susceptible influences topic-specific use.